Raimondo orders first review of R.I. education funding formula

Thursday

Oct 22, 2015 at 3:00 PMOct 22, 2015 at 7:18 PM

By Linda Borg Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Just months after the legislature engaged in a contentious debate over how charter schools are funded, Governor Raimondo has launched a first-ever review of the state’s school funding formula that will, among other things, look at the charter issue.

In a standing-room-only news conference in the State House on Thursday, Raimondo signed an executive order appointing a 29-member committee to examine whether the formula is working as intended, especially with regards to special needs students, students learning English and charter schools.

The working group is on a tight deadline. Raimondo expects to have a preliminary report from the 29-member committee by Jan. 1 and hopes to submit legislation during the next session.

Rhode Island’s existing formula allocates aid to public schools based on student enrollment, the level of student poverty and the wealth of the community.

“It is an excellent funding formula,” Raimondo said. “But it’s been around for five years. It needs to be tweaked.”

Rhode Island, Raimondo said, spends a billion dollars a year on public education.

But, she asked, “Are we getting the most out of our money? Rhode Island is seventh in the nation in terms of per pupil spending, but we’re seeing average [academic] results. What troubles me is we have the greatest achievement gap [between low-income and higher-income students] in the country.”

Although Raimondo referred to the possible changes as tweaks, Tim Duffy, executive director of the Rhode Island Association of School Committees, said if you change one piece of the formula — by including special needs students, for example — districts that are winners under the current formula may wind up getting less money.

But Raimondo said, “Just because it’s complicated doesn’t mean we can’t say we’re going to make it better.”

The funding formula came under fire during last year’s legislative session after a special committee chaired by Rep. Jeremiah O’Grady, D-Lincoln, concluded that charters get disproportionately more money than the sending school districts. Several northern Rhode Island school districts publicly complained that charter schools, specifically the rapidly growing Blackstone Valley Prep mayoral charters, receive more money per pupil than they deserve.

The districts say charters serve disproportionately fewer special education students, yet the tuition dollars — the money that follows the child — doesn’t reflect that disparity. (Charter schools are public schools funded with public dollars. However, they are given greater latitude over practices such as the length of the school day.)

Fueled in part by that study, several lawmakers submitted bills that would have crippled the growth of charter schools, including a bill that would have imposed a moratorium on new charters. But when the legislature recessed suddenly in late June, the charter bills were left in limbo. At the time, Raimondo made it clear that she wouldn’t support any bills that would imperil the future of charter schools.

But the charter school funding controversy isn’t going away.

House Speaker Nicholas A. Mattiello, in a recent interview with The Journal, said that charter schools are creating “a competitive parallel system that’s taking money out of the traditional public school.”

“You’re hurting the majority of kids in our society by providing an elite education to the few,” he said Tuesday. “We can’t afford two systems.”

In a separate interview with The Journal, Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed said she thinks the funding formula will need “as much as $10 million new dollars” if the state wants to adequately fund charters and traditional public schools.

Meanwhile, the charter schools say they are willing to revisit the funding formula.

“We applaud Governor Raimondo for her leadership on this critical issue, and we look forward to engaging with the working group throughout this process,” said Timothy Groves, executive director of the Rhode Island League of Charter Schools. “Our current formula has been a huge step forward.”